The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-04-12
EXTENSIVE STEAL.
systematic Robbery by Pan
Handle Employees.
qHEY STEAL HALF A MILLION
The Robbery Has Been Going ON For
Years-Arrests of some OF the
ThIeves-Etc.
A Gigantic Steal .

a
PITTS BURG, Pa, April 11-DetectlVes
have unearthed a gigantic conspiracy
fDr robbing the Pan Handle Railroad
Company. Nearly half @ million DOL
lars worth of freight is said to have oeen
carried off by the plunderers and tnelr
tools. Most &C the men involved IN the
not are conductors and brakemen IN
the employ Of the road. This morning
a concerted raid began upon the board
ing places and homes OF Pan Handle
Railway employees. conductors and
brakesmen by q squad composed OF lOU
poJicemen. detectives ana constaDles.
AtI.15 o'clock two prisoners were IS :
corted to the jail from their homes. At
9 o'clock this morning torty-four con-
S,,rtors and brakemen were locked up
in the county Jail, one entire wing OF
which was specially set apart for their
orconmodation. Early trains from the
vast we're held in the yard by the dis
rIov of red signals from the block at
Eo2rfh Avenue Officers boarded the
train knowing the men that were
wanted and promptly secured them
and marched them to Jail. No
tain arrived that did not lose one or
more men from its crew. John H.
HAMPTON, attorney for the Pennsyl-
yapi Company, was seen this morning
Gin the office of the detective agency,
where, sitting amidst heterogeneous
collection of plumbers, he said ::
"These robberies have been carried on
systematically for several years. The
company have long been aware that
there vas leakage somewhere, and as
early as September, 1886, they quietly
commenced Investigations. Detectives
we're placed on trains where the goods
could Be watched and the thieves
caught. We had already discovered
that the culprits were employees of the
company. In September there were
eighty crews of freight trains on the
Pan Handle r abroad coming into Pitts
burg; of these eighty crews, no less than
seventy = five were found TO be
crooked. a crew consists of condUe.
tor, & fagman and two brakenien.
In some cases all the men were in
volyed; in others only part. The state
ment that engineers and fremen were
mixed up in the robbery is wrong; not
single one is involved. The goods were
obtained by the thieves in various
ways; in many instances the seals were
broken while in others hatchets were
used to cut hole in the end of the car
through which men crswled and take
what they coveted. Then they re-
ported the car in bad condition, claim
ing that the hole had been made by
accident. The operations Werr all the 1
result of a combination. Arrange
ments were carefully made and each
rascal was assigned to his particular
part Of the work, IN much the same
way as a bank robbery is conducted by
professional craftsmen. do not know
that members of the combination were
oathbound, or anything of that kind,
but It IS certain that thorough under
standing existed among them and they
acted in concert to cover each others
dolngs. The things which alarmed
US mere than anything else was that
they stole l rye quantities of whisky
and drank it in the cabooses. They
needed vessels to hold the LIQUOR, so
they stole milk cans and kept it in them;
not daring to keep whisky openly in the
cans, they tore up the flooring and hid
1t underneath. Men were continually
reported drunk on duty, and the prob
Solhty OF disaster was something fright
Ioi to contemplate. All kinds of goods
we're stolen, including sewing ma
silverEare, cigars, clothing, liquor liquors.
groceries, furniture and in feet
every imaginable article that can be
carried on the cars, were quietly. re&-
moved. The depredations were com
mltted all along the road, and the losers
reside at points as far west as Den
Eer Fences were established in this
taIY Where the stolen property was
.@Aen ana then sold, the money being
rSuiy divided among the crews. It is
o - to give the aggregate value
Va ene property stolen, but it is claimed
a-oH tnst II viii not reach $500 OOO." The
@-lests created the greatest excitement
S1Su H IaIroaa employees of this city.
Inc scenes about the jail doors this
n-;1ds Wnere the relatives of the
ggIsohefs mad gathered to learn the
SSuSe VI u . arrests were of the saddest
1SScHPtlon. AT O'Clock ten more ar
teses were reported. They were cap
go dt Inc pay car while receiving
SteM wages. Ibis makes a total of
80. 10y SIX =. now IN jail here and it is sup
s su aS many more have been ap-
i :-,a G az other points along the
tae proprietors of fences" ard doas
c saere the goods we're secreted and sold.
me arrests include twelve conductors
@1u thlrty-seVen brakemen. Seven
Iore arrests have been made. INIT the
James have not yet been recorded,
early 200 warrants are still ont A
,s of houses in various parts Of
o-e city were raided today and a LARGE
gyHUsntlty OF goods recovered. EyeSy
ian arrested had stolen goods some
S Saele. Among the prisoners are several
SSsSperate characters, who were wanted
- - ehe police for other offences. They
s,' 1Ie all armed, and when not taken by
nv. Prise, resisted arrest. Numbers
VTtss ,n them, however, and all
"ete safely lodged in jail.
oq a special dispatch from Denison saws.
C IJGefs nave arrested James and w
V SOl.tS' with several thousand dollars
s eUISn OF ,velvets and high.priced dry
T SVToS N their possession. The articles
cav g~re taken from United States bonded
II H. en route to points west.
Va. he most Important arrest made here
csIIoa' aat Of Brakeman Roung. He
onseo az Inc Jail to see one of the pris.
stSr Uni, .hls morning and was immedi-
WY iocked up. At first he protested